UN nominates Bangladeshi for its tech bank panel

Bangladesh's immunologist Firdausi Qadri has been named as a member of a high-level panel of the UN which will assess the scope and functions of its proposed new ‘Technology Bank’. Prominent scientist Qadri is the director at Centre for Vaccine Sciences of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). The new Technology Bank will be dedicated to helping the least developed countries (LDCs) emerge out of poverty, said a statement by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson. The high-level panel will advise the UN chief on the organisational and operational aspects of a proposed Technology Bank and Science, Technology and Innovation Supporting Mechanism dedicated to the LDCs. Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the UN AKA Momen said: ‘We had proposed this technology bank’s headquarters to be established in Dhaka during the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s 2011 visit to Bangladesh. Later a few other cities including, Istanbul gave the same proposal.’ The South-South Cooperation Summit of the UN will be held in Dhaka in February next year. ‘We will then propose the setting up of a 'Science and Technology Centre' in Dhaka. Even if we don't get the headquarters of technology bank, initiatives will taken to use this centre as the regional branch of it,’ he said. The panel is chaired by Rwanda’s Romain Murenzi, currently Executive Director of the World Academy of Sciences in Trieste, Italy, according to a news agency.